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Alleyscape project on east side of Main Street nears conclusion

By Scott RochatLongmont Times-Call

Posted:
05/03/2013 08:41:39 PM MDT

Updated:
05/04/2013 04:24:02 PM MDT

Construction equipment and supplies sit in the parking lot east of the Dickens Tavern and Opera House on Friday. Completion of the project on the east side of main has been delayed by everything from weather to an Xcel gas line.
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LEWIS GEYER
)

LONGMONT -- It's a familiar Main Street refrain: Alleyscape is almost done.

But in another month or so, the refrain could become reality.

The finish line is now early June for the eastern half of the downtown alley improvement project, roughly 10 months late. And by the end of that month, project manager Chris Huffer said, work on the west side of Main should be under way.

"It's all part of the job," Huffer said of the frequent delays. "But I'll be happy when it's done for sure."

Not half as happy as some of the downtown businesses will be. As work stretched on -- and on and on, thanks in part to weather delays and a three-week interruption so Xcel could refurbish a gas line -- business sometimes stretched thin on the east side of the 300, 400 and 500 blocks of Main. Detours, blocked-off parking and often-inaccessible back entrances tried not only the patience, but the cash registers of some merchants.

Shifting out of park(ing)

"It was actually a pretty major inconvenience for us," said Rob Gardner, the manager of Miller Music at 464 Main St. "About 60 percent of our walk-in traffic comes in through the back door. ... If customers have to park four, five, six blocks away, it's hard to get foot traffic on Main Street."

Still, he added, now that it's starting to wrap up, more folks are walking down the brick-paved alley and by that back entrance -- and that's nothing but a benefit.

"I've even done a lot of walking up and down it myself," Gardner said.

Rod Brandenburg, owner of Grandpa's Pawn and Gun at 312 Main St., is less convinced. A frequent critic of the project, Brandenburg said the lost parking and difficult access cut his business by 40 to 50 percent when construction was active.

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"There's three or four businesses that aren't here anymore," he said, pointing to the shuttered Department of Clothing store as one example. "There's a direct correlation with the lack of parking."

At least one former Main Street business, 7 West Pizzeria, blamed Alleyscape for its closure last year.

Brandenburg also said the project is leaving his business with fewer options than it had before. Customers with larger items used to be able to use the nearby public parking lot to line up their vehicles with his loading dock, Brandenburg said. Now a short metal fence separates that part of the alley from the lot.

R.J. Storey, of Aurora, reads the menu at Dickens Tavern, 300 Main St., on Friday. Storey, an author, said she was visiting Longmont to do research for a murder/mystery she was planning to write.
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LEWIS GEYER
)

"Pretty much, if you have big items, you have to come in the front door," Brandenburg said. "And now I've got to move entire jewelry cabinets to put a motorcycle in the back."

Huffer said he'd heard the concerns but that the alley right of way is wider now than it was before. Businesses like Grandpa's Pawn don't have an access agreement to use the parking lot for loading and unloading, he said, and both the city and the Longmont Downtown Development Authority decided that without an agreement, there was too much liability.

Brandenburg, for his part, thought that the detours around the construction zone and along a busy Third Avenue, were a "disaster waiting to happen."

"What a nightmare," he said.

'It's beautiful'

Lynn Owens, co-owner of the Dickens Tavern & Opera House at 300 Main St., acknowledged that construction had been a trial, one that her customers reminded her of regularly. But she said she likes what's coming out of it, and that there has been some cooperation. Not long ago, for example, one piece of construction was postponed a week to accommodate a wedding at the restaurant that had 250 guests.

"I do commend the LDDA -- they've been working with me and the contractor to do what they can for us," said Owens. "I look at the glass as half full ... you go up the alleyway to look and think 'God, it's beautiful.'"

Ron Cheyney of Ron's Printing Center, 420 Main St., agrees entirely. He said the repaving, improved drainage and better lighting has made the alleys far more attractive to passers-by than they were before. The one piece he'd had a doubt about, he said, was taking the covers off the breezeways -- and even then, he said, it made the area more open and visible, and more usable for downtown events.

"The alley's so much cleaner, so much nicer, so much better," he said.

He also doubted that the construction project had anything to do with 7 West's closure.

"It looks like Joe's is doing pretty well," Cheyney said, referring to the restaurant that opened in the same location as the departed pizzeria.

Wrapping up and going west

Huffer said the support structure for "Los Arcos" -- a public art piece that used to adorn the breezeways before they were uncovered -- should be finished by May 15 or 16, after which the Art in Public Places program can arrange for the piece's relocation. Landscaping, drainage work and some "punch list" items also will be taken care of this month, he said.

The west side Alleyscape is being designed now, he said. The current contractor, J2 Contracting Company, will get a chance to give a price estimate May 22, after which it will be decided whether to extend the contract or put it back out to bid. Construction is planned to begin in mid- to late June.

Plans are to get the west side 300 and 400 block done by Nov. 15, though if delays occur, the 400 block would be pushed to 2014. The 500 block, Huffer said, hasn't been nailed down yet, since the schedule is partly dependent on Boulder County's plans to build parking on nearby Coffman Street.

Meanwhile, Owens is ready to have the first half done. Maybe even a little eager.

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